Braves 11, Astros 4: Astros a dud on fireworks night

That’s probably the only thing that stood between the gathering of 29,252 and the Minute Maid Park exits as the captive audience was treated to nine of the worst innings of baseball by the home team all year as the Astros lost 11-4 to the Atlanta Braves on Friday.

The fans were treated to quiet inning after quiet inning from the Astros’ offense and blast after blast from the Braves. Defensive miscues and ineptitude in stopping the running game also contributed to dropping the Astros to a season-worst 16 games below .500 at 24-40.

And to top it off, the fans were treated to the sight of one of the few shining objects of their admiration — hot-hitting outfielder Hunter Pence — leaving before the fourth inning with tightness in his back.

The ugliness started at the beginning. Aneury Rodriguez, who had another poor statement as his spot in the rotation potentially teeters, walked the leadoff man.

That .196 hitter, Jordan Schafer, would come around to score, and the Braves would virtually put it out of reach in the third inning with the first two of their four home runs.

Freddie Freeman made it 4-0 with his monstrous shot to right field, and Alex Gonzalez followed with a shot of almost equal stature to left.

“It seems like I’m doing an OK job, but it’s not cutting it right now,” Rodriguez said.

Big night for Bourn

Enerio Del Rosario erased any suspense by allowing Rodriguez’s final run and three of his own to score in the fifth to make it 9-1. Jeff Fulchino and a returning Brandon Lyon surrendered home runs late.

That four-inning, six-hit, six-run performance by Rodriguez (0-4) isn’t going to look all that swell when the Astros have to decide whether to send him or Jordan Lyles (among obvious candidates) packing from the rotation when Wandy Rodriguez returns Monday.

“We want to sit down and talk about some things, there’s no doubt,” Astros manager Brad Mills said. “We’d like him to keep that focus and concentration over a period of time, and we’ve seen that come and go when he’s pitched in these starts. That’s going to happen, especially with young guys their first time in the major leagues, it is going to come and go.”

With the kind of support the Astros offered up, though, both from the bullpen and the offense, a loss was inevitable.

Michael Bourn singled, tripled and doubled twice on the evening, but the Astros did little else against Tim Hudson (5-5), who pitched six strong innings and allowed two runs on seven hits.

The Astros also went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position, continuing a problem that has plagued them dating to the San Diego series, when they went 6-for-42 and the St. Louis series when they went 4-for-34, making them 10-for-85 (.118) in their past eight games.

Downs goes deep

And in the midst of all that, they lost Pence, who extended his hitting streak to 21 games, tying him for the eighth-longest streak in Astros history. He came out right after that hit and a laborious first-to-third run on a Carlos Lee single. The pain started earlier.

“In sprints before the game, it kind of locked up a bit, and I was hoping it would loosen up — it was precautionary, and hopefully, I’ll get some work on it and get back in there (today),” Pence said.

With the body count at one and the souvenir count at four — a season high for an Astros opponent — Matt Downs finally gave the home fans something to cheer in the ninth inning with a two-run homer.

But it only put a little makeup on a game that was ugly from the start and provided some consolation for the fans who stayed in their seats well past when they normally would have headed into the evening.